


The Remains of a Week

by CiderSky



Category: The Avengers (2012), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Bruce Has Issues, Clint Feels, Everyone Has Issues, Get your hankies, Iron Man 3 Spoilers, M/M, Magic, Phil fixes everything, Phil is perfect, Steve Has Issues, Supernatural Elements, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Tony Has Issues, and everyone, chapter a day, fix-it?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiderSky/pseuds/CiderSky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The Tesseract has taken a small piece of your Son of Coul with it.” Thor states. "Enough to restore his spirit to his physical form."</p><p>In those sentences Clint can feel the world coming back together. </p><p>“Just for one week."</p><p>Or, </p><p>Phil is granted one more week of life. Despite it all, Phil manages to fix everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Remains of a Week

**Author's Note:**

> This is my way of getting back into writing. I will be posting a chapter a day for each day (or half day) the boys / team have together.

On a quiet Sunday morning Thor returns from Asgard.

The Avengers barely have time to welcome him before he herds them to the kitchen and tells them with a steady voice and serious countenance that Phil Coulson can live again.

He tells them about the great spirit world and of his mother and father, of the debt Asgard owes to Midgard, and Clint Barton feels as though he can breath again.

“The Tesseract has taken a small piece of your Son of Coul with it.” He states. In that simple sentence Clint feels the world coming back together. “Enough to restore his spirit to his physical form on your plane.” 

“However, it would be great folly to not inform you that the Midgardian world is not fit for such magic.”

Thor pauses and Clint bolsters himself because he is ready for anything Thor has to say. He will take Phil as he was or in any way the Tesseract sees fit to return him.

Thor tells him again that his spirit and body can be restored. What comes next is beyond anything Clint had been expecting.

“Just for one week.” Thor says, his voice low and gentle.

The God is assaulted by questions and exclamations of disbelief – they are angry and confused, hopeful yet grief-stricken over the promise for another loss.

“I did not wish to keep such knowledge from you.” Thor explains when someone – Tony – asks why he would bother telling them if that was as good as he could do. 

Clint is angry too. Though he knows he shouldn’t be. Still, he asks ‘why’ over and over, and no answer is good enough. No answer is good enough for just one damn week.

“The piece is small, so small, my friend.” Thor sounds tired.

“That’s not good enough!” Clint shouts at him even though Thor is doing nothing but trying to help them, to give them this gift that on Asgard wouldn’t be cause such commotion. On Asgard such a gift would be taken humbly, accepted without question and respected regardless of length. 

Just for one week. It is all Clint hears. 

Thor’s patience has no end, even when they ask the questions he cannot answer or those that he does not quite understand. 

And they all have questions. Good questions. But all it does is send them into argumentative circles.

Matter cannot be created from nothing, Bruce complains.

Is that really worth it, Tony spits, still angry.

It won’t really be Phil, Steve worries.

It is cruel, Natasha warns.

Thor does not argue or claim to know the truths behind their science or Midgardian morals. He simply knows what his truth is, what the truth of Asgard is, and that truth is that Phil Coulson can live again.

Just for one week.

It is not enough, Clint screams internally.

“What happens if we don’t … bring him back.” Clint asks, hoping this makes everything easier.

“His spirit is free to go where it wishes.” Thor says simply. There’s no hint of grimness or sadness there. They can only assume this is a good thing, that by not choosing to do so would condemn him to some hellish limbo.

Thor tells them he will give them time to think and will return to Midgard in two days time. He leaves them sitting stupidly at their large kitchen table.

Clint wonders what it would be like to see Phil again.

Just for one week. 

* * *

 No one gets any sleep that first night.

They camp out in Stark’s living room, waxing philosophical, debating morality and talking science, most of which is so over the heads of the majority of those present that it quickly fizzles out.

After a while Tony calls for a vote. 

They vote five times and never come to a conclusion.

Clint especially. The first vote saw them in favor of leaving the matter be and Clint calls horseshit.

They all know about him and Phil so they listen to him.

When the vote comes to the favor of bringing him back, someone brings up morality again, about the pain of dying for a second time.

When it is in favor of leaving him to rest, they all sit morose and suggest a re-vote.

Eventually they just stop and for the sake of their sanity Steve calls for a break. Someone orders pizza while Clint goes to his quarters and punches the ever-living shit out of the punching bag hanging from his ceiling.

They reconvene and do it all over again. 

* * *

 They fall silent for a while, exhausted from talking in circles and arguing with each other, until Pepper speaks up, her approach tentative, as if she knows that what she is about to say is dangerous. 

“What would you want, if it were you?” She asks, addressing all of them, her eyes rimmed with fatigue and glossy with new grief.

No one answers, though it’s clear that they are all mulling it over, trying so hard to put themselves in an impossible position. 

* * *

 Clint feels Natasha’s hand slink over to cover his own. Clint looks away but doesn’t remove himself from her grasp.

She knows him well enough to know what he’s thinking, what he _wants._

He wants to be selfish. He wants Phil back.

But if he were in Phil’s position?

He doesn’t think he would survive the heartache

* * *

No one has slept and Pepper’s question still hangs in the air like an ugly, terribly stench.

Eventually, Tony gets frustrated, is confused like the rest of them and he says the wrong thing.

“He was _your_ boyfriend! You think you’d know him better than this!”

“Tony!” Pepper and Steve shout in unison and Clint sees red.

Clint nearly strangles Tony and is only kept from doing so because Steve and Natasha are right there, pulling him back.

He hates Stark at that moment. Wants him dead, even.

But ultimately, he knows, in some way, that he’s right.

* * *

 Later, Tony hands him a beer.

“Bruce and I have some ideas.”

Clint knows it’s meant to be an apology so he nods. 

* * *

Clint listens numbly as Bruce and Tony argue. They say things like ‘object permanence’ and talk about half-lives.

He doesn’t understand much of it but even he knows that whatever is happening to Phil isn’t measurable by their science. Or at least, it’s unlikely that it will be.

He knows they’re just trying to figure out a way to get their cake and eat it to - to keep Phil without having to worry about one measly week – but he wishes they would just stop.

He doesn’t like the idea of Phil as a science project. 

He likes the hope welling within him even less.

* * *

 “What if it hurts him?” Clint says to Natasha, his voice sandpapery.

They’re sitting in her quarters, trying to get away from Tony and Bruce’s arguing, Pepper’s crying, Steve’s guilt ....

It weighs on them all. It’s the second day. Thor will be returning within a few hours and they still haven’t made a real decision.

“We cannot know that now, Clint.” Natasha says and if it weren’t for her strength and her uncanny ability to ground herself – to ground _him_ \- in any situation, Clint would be lost.

“What should we do, Tash?” Clint asks, though its more pleading than anything else. He can’t be the one to make this decision. Whatever _he_ decides, it will be coming from a selfish place. 

“I miss him.” It’s the first time he’s said that, he realizes.

Natasha says nothing but doesn’t pull away when he leans in, exhausted. He realizes after a long moment that he’s crying, releasing months of quiet, internalized anguish.

Clint finds himself wishing Thor had just kept the whole thing to himself.

 

* * *

 Thor appears when no one is prepared for it.

They’re all scattered throughout the tower, working this through in their own unique ways and its Jarvis who calls them back to the common area which is still a mess of old pizza, flat sodas and pillows and blankets. 

Thor and Bruce collapse onto the couch while Pepper takes an armchair. Steve, Natasha and Clint stand at near military attention, their composure anything but relaxed.

“I have held council with my father.” Thor starts when they all appear ready.

“He is ready to return Son of Coul to Midgard using what remains within the Tesseract, should you wish it.”

Thor stops and it is all to clear that he is awaiting their answer.

Clint feels his stomach drop because he still had no fucking clue what to say. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you saw things, Tony speaks up.

“Yeah, about that, the jury’s still out. Come back in another two days.” Tony grouses, crossing his arms.

Clint looks up hopefully, though he doubts it’s an option.

Thor gives them all a look that says it is not and returns the man’s defiance, crossing his own arms across his chest and looking as formidable as he indeed is.

“Listen,” Tony continues, “you can’t just barge back into _our_ realm and make us decide things like this.”

“Tony’s right.” Steve says, his voice more controlled and far less argumentative.

“This is a lot to deal with. A lot to take in. This is a man’s life we are talking about.” It means a lot coming from him, a man who had pretty much been transported through time. “You understand that, Thor.”

Thor nods in understanding but stands his ground.

“I do. However, a decision must be made. My father does not believe the Tesseract will hold onto our Shield Brother for long. It is the reason for my urgency.” 

Clint feels like his head is going to explode as the room alights with argument once again.

Thor can’t ask this of them, he _can’t_.

This is Phil, not some Asgardian ghost warrior or ancient mythical beast. They don’t know how to cope with magical events – hell, he still hadn’t reconciled with the fact that he’d been under a _thrall_ for the better part of four days. They were all just becoming comfortable with the idea of alien Gods and the existence of other dimensions.

He can’t ask this of them. 

Clint feels the ache – the one that had appeared after news of Phil’s death first reached him – in his chest grow, strangling him from within; it feels like he’s dying.

His body screams for release – he needs this to go away. He needs all the pain and suffering and fear to go away. He needs his love for Phil to just fucking go away.

Before he knows what he’s saying, he shouts, his voice choked and desperate – it’s enough to breach the clamor of the others and the room falls silent.

“Bring him back.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually ask for feedback but this is a challenge for me, trying to break my habit of taking far too much time between updates or abandoning stories. If the premise interests you, please let me know :-)
> 
> Also, if you think Tony is being unreasonably jerky I promise you there are reasons and feels and it will all be resolved.
> 
> Thank you, as always, for reading.
> 
> (And for those of you wondering about One More Time With Feeling, that is back on track and will be coming to you soon.)


End file.
